Long time no seen, I know. Time has a way of running away from me, and I can’t seem to catch up with it no matter how hard I try. So please stick around a little longer, I promise I’ll be back at some point :)

This time I’m joining the other girls from the Polishers Inc. crew in a challenge called Negative Space – which is nail art that includes bare nails in the design :O

Like I said, I didn’t have a lot of time, so I just threw on some vinyls from Nails Redesigned and coloured my nails with the amazing Escapades from piCture pOlish. A shade that’s been created in collaboration with the sweet and lovely Malene from Nail Escapades, who’s also a member of our little group :D

I’ve wanted to buy this stunning dark greenish teal with holo flakies for so long, and finally decided to give it to myself as a treat for my Birthday this month.

I. Love. It! It’s dark, yet colourful – which is hard to capture on camera! It’s opaque in one generous or two light coats, and it doesn’t stain. What not to love?! I understand why Malene is so proud of it :D

When we choose which theme to do for these Polishe’s Inc. challenges we do a democratic vote between suggestions made by the members. And mine are never picked! ;)

So when this 90’s theme FINALLY got picked, I was so excited – because it’s my suggestion, and I just love everything about the 90’s. The music, the clothing, the tv-series! It was a good decade. I guess we all feel that about the decade we grew up in? ;)

I had a lot of plans for this theme, and I actually thought I’d have enough time onmy hands by now to participate in the PI challenges again. I mean, my baby is a month and a half.

So yeah. That didn’t happen. Nail art is still not something I can find the time to do, so instead I chose to do the next best thing and swatch something. At least that way I’m still in the game, although it’s a bit like jumping the low end of the fence.

Let me introduce you to my newest Foxy Paws shade – called ‘Just The Two Of Us’. I’ve made this baby blue shade with blue and white micro glitter in to celebrate my new baby boy.

I’ve named it after the remake of the song that Will Smith made for his son back in 1997. I’ve always loved that tune, and back in the 90’s Big Willie was my biggest idol. My fave song was Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It, and Just The Two Of Us came in on a close second.

Back then I thought it was such a sweet, loving tribute for Will to give to his son, but after having my own baby… It made me cry when I listened to it again. Crazy how those little guys can change your whole world upside down! I mean… I’m crying over literally anything, and especially anything where there’s a parent and a child involved.

I won’t say too much about the polish since I’m a little biased, but I’m really pleased with the result. Lighter colours can be tricky, but I think I’ve made this easy to work with. Shown is two coats and Seche Vite top coat.

This was my attempt at getting back in the Polishers Inc. game. Don’t forget to stop by the other girls by clicking the pictures below. I’m sure they are been getting their creative game on for this challenge :D

Long time no seen! I wish I could say “I’m back”, but I’m not. At all. These days I’m home alone, so I’m even more under pressure, and even though I’d love to, painting my nails just isn’t a priority. Boo :(

I have, however, had the chance to try out these new Velvet Texture polishes from Sally Hansen, before the hubs decided to make his escape and leave me with the little monkey boy.

This new range comes in various colours, and I’ve been lucky enough to try out four beautiful shades!

But – there’s five in this picture, you say… Yes, that’s because I was also sent one Luxe Lace effect polish, which I will present to you in another post :)

Nails as smooth as velvet
The Velvet Texture polishes promise to give you that smooth, velvety look that you usually need flocking powder to achieve, but without the fuzz. And I have to say, they don’t really live up to that promise. Obviously they can’t give you the same, soft feeling that the powder does, so basically they look like your nails do after the flocking powder comes off.

You know that feeling, right? You sprinkle on the powder, but after a few hours it’s gone, leaving bald spots with cottage cheese-like holes in your polish. That’s what you get here. That’s not necessarily a bad thing! Just not like flocking powder in my oppinion.

I’ll give you an overall review at the end of the post, but for now – let’s see some pictures!

First up is number 610 – Crushed, a beautiful mauve.
I used two coats for this picture. This number was quite sheer, the most sheer of them all, but two coats is still enough for full coverage. You can’t do with just one with this one.

Next we have number 670 – Lavish, a dark burgundy, almost oxblood red.
Here’s also two coats, but for this one you could get away with just one. It didn’t stain, but it did make my fingers look kinda red. You know, lobster hands. It’s a shame, because I adore this colour, but some dark reds just do this to my fingers.

Number 640 – Velour is a medium coloured purple.
Here’s also two coats, but I think you could get away with just one for this one as well. I think this is the one that looks the most like velvet on the nails, perhaps hence the name ;) I did some damage to my middle finger, which made it look a little lumpy :/ This is how I discovered that it takes quite some time for these polishes to dry.

Last, but not least, we have number 630 – Lush. I have a thing about brown and nudes, although they rarely suit me ;) I don’t care, I love this one anyway!
I used two coats, and you couldn’t get away with just one here. Here you can also see how it looks like if you don’t find that golden middle when applying your second coat, especially on the pinky.

My overall opinion

Although I’m a sucker for texture polish, I’m not diggin’ these. One of the things I love about textures is that they dry fast, so they’re my quick and easy to-go choice. These aren’t like that.

All of the polishes are easy to work with at the first layer. If you need more than one it can get a little tricky, though. The formula is quite fast drying, because they’re mattified, so you need to make a Goldie Locks-move and get just the right amount of polish on your brush for the second layer to go on smooth.

Besides drying time they’re easy to work with, since they come with a semi-wide brush.

Compared to other textures, the texture in these aren’t as gritty, which make them less fun to touch ;) On the plus side, that means they won’t pick up as much dirt as your regular textures (you know, you wear them for half a day and the pretty light green now looks like an army manicure…)

I do love the colours, especially Crushed and Velour.

The Velvet Texture polishes are available now at your local Sally Hansen pusher (which means Matas, Ulta etc.)

*** These products were sent to me in exchange for my honest review ***

Because I knew I wouldn’t get much time to do my nails once my little baby had arrived, I asked my very good friend Maria, from rijaH.dk, if she’d help me out with a guest post just to make sure the blog wouldn’t be totally deserted.

She did this incredible design using one of my own creations from Foxy Paws to celebrate me on having my little boy.
I’ll let Maria tell a little more about it:

“Charlotte asked me if I wanted to do a guest post for her in December, because she would get her hands full once her baby got here. He decided, however, to arrive in late December, making her more busy this month, which is why this post is due now.
My original thoughts about this manicure was to make it blue – because she was having a boy – and with snowflakes, because I was hoping we’d get that too.

We got the boy out safely, but the white Christmas didn’t happen. Not on Christmas Day anyway. Of course it decided to snow the day after Christmas. So typical of the Danish weather, right?

I created this look using Foxy Paws – I’m Blue as a base and then I decorated it with three different colours of blue foil to get that scattered effect. On top of it I stamped on some white snow flakes.”

Thank you so much, Maria! I love the gesture, and the design is stunning! <3
If you want to see more stunning designs from Maria, check out her blog at rijaH.dk :)